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What is Stress and Stress Managment?

By: Sean Wells

Stress Management and how should I be managing my stress?

The definition of stress can be found here.

Stress is a state of mental or emotional strain. Tension resulting from adverse or very demanding physical or mental circumstances.

Stress can come from work. Relationships can cause stress. Sleep(or lack thereof) among a million other things that cause you to “strain” either mentally or emotionally.  Although a lot of things cause stress. Stress and stress management is part of our day to day lives. Learning how to deal with stress effectively allows you to be a happier, healthier individual.

OC can help your stress management

Days that are programmed “NOT FOR TIME” (NFT). NFT are low stress days by design. There is no added pressure in doing the work “as fast as possible”. NFT allows your body to complete work without added duress. The task is simply to do the work. Move the body, breathe a bit, exercise, and you will feel a difference afterwards.

Also these workouts often require little added thought; allowing you to “shut off” your brain and just move.

The NFT workout is a positive outlet for stress that also helps to lower overall stress levels. These days also give you a great opportunity to work on things that pay dividends on the “higher” stress days, aka “For Time”, or AMRAP type workouts.

Other ways to minimize stress in your life, outside of the time in the gym:

  1. Nutrition: Eat well balanced meals that include protein, fat and carbs. People often miss a meal or just grab what is nearby. This causes stress to the body and stress to the mind. Hopefully, everyone knows you should be eating protein, fat and carbs at every meal(Nutrition Help here).  It’s only later that people often realize the negative food choices and then stress while reflecting on the “last minute grab” of fast food or something less than ideal. 
  2. Sleep: Most people need 7-9 hours of sleep a night. By not getting enough sleep you are introducing more stress into your body and limiting your body’s ability to recover. Improve your quality of sleep by avoiding the use of electronics as you approach your bedtime and instead, reading a book before bed.  
  3. Meditation/Relax/Unplug: Spend 5-10 minutes a day in a quiet space, with no stimulus. This doesn’t include comfort scrolling on your phone, or reading, this means just you and your thoughts, unplugged from distraction. Some people call this meditation others call it “alone time”. No matter what you call it, it is valuable time for you to organize your mind and reduce your stress levels. 
  4. Avoid Stressors: Finally, another great way to reduce stress in your life is to minimize interactions with people, places, etc that cause you stress. For many, checking a phone can cause stress (that work email or Slack notification). Using Instagram or other social media can be stressful. Try to limit your phone time and see if your stress levels plummet. Sometimes people can cause you stress – if these people can be avoided for certain periods of time, see if avoiding them lowers stress levels and improves your outlook. 

Stress is impossible to avoid. Some level of stress is normal and good. A person should have ways to effectively avoid and manage stress, leading to being happier and healthier people.

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